2-18-304. Longevity allowance. (1) (a) In addition to the compensation provided for in 2-18-303, each employee who has completed 5 years of uninterrupted state service must receive 1.5% of the employee's base salary multiplied by the number of completed, contiguous 5-year periods of uninterrupted state service.

(b) In addition to the longevity allowance provided under subsection (1)(a), each employee who has completed 10 years of uninterrupted state service, 15 years of uninterrupted state service, 20 years of uninterrupted state service, or 25 years of uninterrupted state service must receive an additional 0.5% of the employee's base salary for each of those additional 5 years of uninterrupted service.

(c) Service to the state is not interrupted by authorized leaves of absence.

(2) (a) For the purpose of determining years of service under this section, an employee must be credited with 1 year of service for each period of:

(i) 2,080 hours of service following the employee's date of employment; an employee must be credited with 80 hours of service for each biweekly pay period in which the employee is in a pay status or on an authorized leave of absence without pay, regardless of the number of hours of service in the pay period; or

(ii) 12 uninterrupted calendar months following the employee's date of employment in which the employee was in a pay status or on an authorized leave of absence without pay, regardless of the number of hours of service in any month. An employee of a school at a state institution or the university system must be credited with 1 year of service if the employee is employed for an entire academic year.

(b) State agencies, other than the university system and a school at a state institution, shall use the method provided in subsection (2)(a)(i) to calculate years of service under this section.

(3) For the purposes of calculating longevity, employment as a short-term worker does not apply toward years of service.